CBS Turns Down Apple TV Streaming Service Over Proposition To Split Ad Revenue

Les Moonves of CBS recently revealed in an earnings call that his company was approached by Apple about a potential streaming TV service. Apple offered to share ad revenues with CBS, which is exactly what caused the network to decline the deal as they stated that they prefer to license their content. The folks over at GigaOm noted that Moonves (who serves as CBS’s CEO) made the comments in response to an analyst question on whether CBS would pursue partnerships with “success-based or non-guaranteed” streaming players.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a TV streaming service for quite some time now and this goes to show that they have been persistent. Rumors of an Apple television set have been rampant, especially after it was mentioned in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography that Jobs “cracked the TV.” The deal with CBS shows that Apple is indeed going after media companies for agreements – which make the possibility of an Apple television set seem inevitable (assuming the TV streaming service would be integrated into the Apple television set). Furthermore, it was previously revealed that Jeff Robbin would be in charge of spearheading the project, which seems quite promising.

What do you think of the whole ordeal? Would you purchase an Apple television set if it was released? Share any thoughts and comments below!

These are the srots of decisions that make services like Hulu, Apple TV, etc. suck. They don't wan tto license the content because they want to make sure they have 100% control over everything (Apple is the same way). I'd pay $50 a month easy if services like Hulu had everything I wanted to watch available 24 hours after it airs (even with ads). It already takes me 45+ seconds to fast forward through ads on a DVR, for which I am already paying monthly just to be able to use.